The Honeymoon Adventure

David and Laurie were going to
do it up right. First class tickets on American to Key West via Miami, direct from San Francisco. The destination was one of the more exclusive Key Islands off of Little Torch Key, some 30 miles east of Key west. Rated one of the
best resorts by all the top travel magazines and a place that movie and show
stars quietly sneak away to be pampered at the spa and eat 5-star meals.
Following the wedding, they were scheduled to depart at 7a.m., on the 14th
of August for a 5 day stay at Little Palm Island.

If you know of the
Hurricane
Havoc adventure that Laurie and David endured, I’m sure you will believe
that they were confident that nothing more adventurous could occur that would
top that trip….. Well, as luck would have it, their honeymoon would
provide a venue for another story of intrigue and adventure with travel.

Upon arrival at the First Class
counter at 5:45 a.m. David and Laurie had a tinge of deja
vous when the lady informed them that their flight was delayed due to engine
problems and the decision time was 10 a.m. However, they shouldn’t
fear, the agent said she was very experienced and we would be just
fine. They could put us on a flight through DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) and
they would be able to get there just a couple hours late and there was still
a flight that would get them to Key West that evening. David and Laurie
were not real thrilled, but at least they would be in their comfortable suite
on the island that evening.

While waiting in DFW for the
connection David called Little Palm Island and let them know the situation
with the flight changes and Little Palm took an order for sandwiches that
would be waiting for them when they arrived at the resort around
10 p.m. From DFW the flight was off to Miami where David and
Laurie ran through the wonderful Miami airport ( Monitors? Who
needs gate monitors during remodeling?? )

When they arrived at the gate
David and Laurie were informed that their flight to Key West was
delayed. It seems there was no plane to take them to Key West. It
was not clear if there was a mechanical issue or just a shortage of planes,
but either way, it would be at least 10pm before a plane showed up.
Eventually, it was determined that a plane would be flown in from San Juan,
Puerto Rico to take the flight to Key West, but the plane wouldn’t be there
until 11p.m. Can you imagine how excited Laurie and David were at this
point??

David got on the phone to let
Little Palm Island know that there was yet another problem with the airline
and they would be even later. However, no one answered the phone.
Several more tries and different numbers, calling home and having numbers
looked up and confirmed, calling the reservation service, and other attempts
to reach the island met with no luck. With no way to
get their bags from the airline, David and Laurie decided to risk it and if
there wasn’t anyone there to meet them in Key West, they would just get a
room at a nearby hotel and call Little Palm in the morning. Eventually, the
American Eagle flight boarded and at 11:30pm David and Laurie were finally on
their way to Key West and their relaxing suite at Little Palm Island.

When arriving at Key West, Laurie and David were ecstatic to find Gary from Little Palm waiting for them to
arrive. He’d been hanging out at the airport for most of the previous 3
hours waiting for them. He also had good news that the boat from Little
Torch Key to the island would be waiting for them to arrive.

An hour later Gary had David
and Laurie up at the dock and ready for our trip out to the island.
Minor problem though, no boat was there to pick us up!! Gary couldn’t reach anyone at the island and the late arrival phone didn’t appear to be
working. At this point, Gary was very embarrassed and we began to look
for a hotel nearby where Laurie and David could get some sleep.
Eventually, at 2:00a.m. David and Laurie got checked into the Sugarloaf
Lodge. It was 1970’s vintage, but clean enough and the bed worked for
the 6 hours that was spent there.

When David and Laurie rolled
over at 8:30 a.m. they both had the same thought. “Let’s get the heck
out of here and to our nice suite and a good breakfast.” We called Gary and he was there within 20 minutes to pick us up and get us to the dock and the
reception area. The General Manger, Emanuel, was there and apologized
profusely and said he would make it right for us. Within 15 minutes, Laurie
and David were on the island and the Concierge, Jessica (we’ll see her more
later) was waiting to show us our room and give us a quick tour of the island
following a great breakfast.

After breakfast, David and
Laurie returned to the suite to relax, take a nap and Laurie really needed a
calm relaxing bath. Nice ideas, except there were ants around
the edge of the tub. Not a disaster, but a call was made to the
Concierge to have maintenance come take care of it. After 15 minutes
the ant trail was gone and Laurie was ready to prepare a nice relaxing bath.
Unfortunately, the drain was full of live ants and as soon as she tried to
fill the tub they began to swarm out of the overflow drain. After
getting Laurie to breath normally again, the concierge was called again and
the maintenance manager was sent to fix the problem.

Later in the afternoon Laurie
and David shared a nice Romantic spa session in a tub, compliments of the
resort and we were able to relax and we began enjoying our stay. For
dinner we were surprised by 2 different versions of Hog Fish that the chef
had prepared for us. We’d heard this was supposed to be very good and
had mentioned it at lunch. They also provided a complimentary bottle of
Cristal Champagne. After the wonderful dinner Laurie and David returned
to their suite around 10 p.m. to relax and get some much needed sleep.

Unfortunately, both David and
Laurie were hearing music in their ears. There was a live band at the
pool for someone’s 50th birthday and the quiet
romantic resort, wasn’t. David got up and called the front desk to find
out when the music would end. He was told midnight. He was
told they would try to get them to turn down the volume. By 11:30
p.m. David and Laurie had had it and David went off to the front desk
(a.k.a. the Quarter Deck) to find the manager in person. Mark, the manager
on duty, was called to the Quarter Deck and listened to David, but
there was little he could do and the music seemed to get louder. He’d
already been in touch with the general manager, but the person with the party
had bought a large number of rooms on the island (over 10, but not sure if it
was 15 or 20) and there was nothing that could be done. David eventually
returned to the room with little consolation and no success. Eventually
the music shut down and they were able to drift off to sleep around 1a.m.

At breakfast the next morning
the General Manager came by the table to ask if he could sit down to talk. It
was requested that he wait until after the meal and he graciously
departed. He asked the hostess to call him when we were done. After
eating, Laurie and David headed back to their suite and told the hostess to
let the GM know he could come find us there.

As Laurie and David walked up
to their suite the GM was about 10 feet behind them. The GM was very
apologetic. He readily admitted he had no way to apologize enough for
the myriad of problems that had been encountered. There apparently were
some serious problems with their phones and the microwave link they run
across which caused much of the phone problems. As to the birthday
party, let’s say it was a learning experience for them too. After
letting him talk for a few minutes, David
explained the microwave and phone problems didn’t hold
water, cell phones worked fine (indeed, David had talked to his travel
agent a couple of times) and that there wasn’t much that could be said to fix
an unexpectedly poor beginning to a honeymoon on this “quiet and romantic
resort”. The GM was quite remorseful offered to provide us a special
dinner that night a Palapa Point with a private waiter. He also said
that he would ensure that we were credited for our first 3 days there.
In addition, our suite would be moved to the far end of the island where we
would be sure that it would be quiet and relaxed.

Nothing like a challenging
beginning to the honeymoon and marriage. The good news is that the rest
of the week was most everything the resort was known for. We hit the
spa each day and Wednesday night we had a wonderful private Sunset Sail and
were able to eat on the Atlantic Dock. Thursday morning was our last
day and perfect for our snorkel trip. The last night we ate by the pool
and the chef prepared lobsters for dinner (2lbs each!!). After dinner
we returned to our room to find it lit with votives along a rose petal path
through the suite. The bath was filled and had rose petals, along with
more votives and rose petals in the bedroom. Oh, did I mention the
chocolate covered strawberries and champagne in the bathroom?? On the
bed was a teddy bear with some romantic massage oil and a Palm Island
CD.

The next day David and Laurie
got up to head home. Palm Island had definitely made a huge effort to
try and make things right for us. Apparently, our first few days there
were unprecedented in the history of the resort (and I suspect it is so,
given their reputation). Gary met us at the far side of the island and
delivered us to the Key West airport for our ride home.

This time, American Airlines got
it right and we were home in SFO by 5:30 p.m. thinking about the Wedding
Celebration to be had the next evening…..

The one thing about Palm Island is the people are amazing. The staff was incredibly nice and friendly and
always took the time to talk with us about anything we were curious about or
just the experience of it all. Notably, Jessica the Concierge was our
savior. If we had a question or were interested in doing something she
took care of it for us with a smile and never a hesitation. She went
out of her way, beyond what I would consider normal extended help. She made
our time there so much more enjoyable. Oh, and we can’t forget our
transportation savior, Gary.